As Part of Antenna Documentary
Chauvel Cinema
For over 50 years, alternative medicine practitioners have advocated the use of acupuncture as part of treatment for drug addiction. However, few people know that this practice evolved in large part thanks to the Black Panthers, radical liberation politics and Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Tupac Shakur’s stepfather. Dope is Death turns the clock back to 1970, at the height of the heroin epidemic in the South Bronx, where a group of political radicals—fed up with inaction—occupied New York’s Lincoln Hospital. Under the leadership of Shakur, the Lincoln Detox clinic became the first and only politically run drug treatment program funded by the US government. Inspiring and enraging in equal measure, the story of Lincoln Detox and the civil rights organizations that supported it testifies to the continuous need to explore this period in US history—a time that, until recently, has often been misrepresented. Aisha Jamal

The screening will be followed up by an in-depth conversation that explores the intersection of medicine and activism and connects the legacy of Lincoln Detox with community-controlled health services of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in contemporary Australia.

Megan Williams, Wiradjuri Aboriginal Justice Health Researcher and Advocate, & Kata Japunčić, acupuncturist and NADA Acudetox trainer, will reflect on the holistic concept of health that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have – to what extent is it relevant for all? Drawing on Dope on Death, as well as local stories, they will consider how intersections with sovereignty, power and justice are being raised and addressed? Radical roots are exposed – but are they radical? What holds us back from collective care that ensures people can have needs met and visions for the future realised?